Readers Digest in administration

[Aitch]

The Readers Digest in the UK has gone into administration (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8520243.stm), apparently threatening the whole company. :eek:

How will we survive without Life's Like That, or Learn To Improve Our Wordpower? ;)

[Gord_in_Toronto]

They went bankrupt on 18 Aug 2009 in the US.

There were claims at the time that the other national editions would not be affected.

Still going strong here in Canada, apparently. :scared:

[Rrose Selavy]

Well if their office closes I hope they have a forwarding address so they can still receive the latest prize draw offer ....

[Matthew Ellard]

The Readers Digest in the UK has gone into administration (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8520243.stm), apparently threatening the whole company. :eek:

How will we survive without Life's Like That, or Learn To Improve Our Wordpower? ;)

Readers Digest was sold and taken over by a consortium about five years ago. Their sales collapsed around this time as they had an older audience who started to die off. In Australia they were fined $280,000 for sending misleading invoices to elderly people and for sending two packages a week to senile people saying "unless you return this in 7 days we will invoice you using your credit card details".

I manage Australia's leading gardener who appears on "Better Homes & Gardens" TV show. I was invited to meet the Australian board of Readers' Digest. I thought they were going to offer my client money to appear in their magazine to boost sales. In the meeting the CEO said "If you pay us money we will let you increase your clients fame by letting him appear in Reader's Digest magazine". I went bright red and said "I'm really sorry but I have never seen your magazine anywhere and I give you my word my celebrity client will never mention your magazine ever again on television to see that it remains that way". The idiot in charge of magazines said, "who are you?" and I had to show her the email she sent me asking me to come to the meeting.

It was classical "agency theory". All the overpaid Aussie executives were simply trying to hold onto their pay packets on a week by week basis by pretending they were doing something for an insolvent multinational company.

I'm glad thet they have all lost their jobs. Now I can be nasty and ensure they don't get new ones with the other publishers.